I live in a region where the glaciers are receding. Global heating means that the future of glaciers in Tirol looks bleak, with a new study from ETH Zurich suggesting that by 2100, only about 3% of the glacier mass from 2017 may remain due to climate change. The impacts are serious: if many glaciers disappear entirely, the region’s ecology and water resources will be impacted, with poor outcomes for humans, our environment, and our systems.
When I run my Walk the Futures events, participants take stories of melting glaciers very “matter-of-factly” (is this a word? It is now!) There’s no beating of chests. There is acknowledgement, acceptance, sometimes a conversation of the past and grief for what will no longer exist. Sometimes, someone will talk about it being time to visit a glacier again, perhaps with a child or grandchild. But there’s no drama. It’s just something that will change, possibly within their lifetimes.
An article I read recently in Nautilus described a related phenomenon: people travelling specifically to see glaciers before they disappear. It is sometimes described as “last chance tourism”.
What struck me was the emotional structure of that phrase.
It emphasises that climate change is not only something we analyse through models and projections. Increasingly, it is something people encounter through direct experience of loss. Landscapes that once felt stable begin to morph into something. People return to places they know and realise that something familiar is gone.
In futures work we often talk about helping people imagine long-term change. And some of this change is not just “possible”, it’s certain. This means that we’re not just asking people to imagine a creative scenario, but come to terms with the disappearance of something they imagine and hope will still exist in a version of the future.
What skills do futurers and futures facilitators need to help people process almost-certain loss? As I am writing this, the concept of a “midwife for death” or a “death doula” keeps coming to mind: depending on the kind of futures facilitation we do, is it necessary for us to learn how to assist in process of both “birthing new ideas” and assisting in the process of allowing old ideas – and attachments – to die?
My gut feeling is “yes”, but it’s something I need to sit with for today.